Competition Watch

Lightyear Communications received formal approval from the California PUC to operate as a facilities-based CLEC in that state. Lightyear provides converged data, voice and Internet services to residential and business customers.

Integrated communications provider NetCarrier acquired Eclipse Internet Access, an ISP offering commercial and residential Internet solutions. According to NetCarrier, the acquisition doubles its customer base and triples its revenues.

FiberNet Telecom's primary network operations center has opened in Newark, N.J. The NOC monitors FiberNet's network and responds to customer service incidents. The NOC, scalable for network growth and technology development, will monitor network facilities in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

KMC Telecom launched its domain name and IP address allocation services to businesses in its 37 markets. KMC is offering dedicated connection speeds of 56 kb/s to 2.5 Gb/s and is marketing the service to ASPs, ISPs and enterprise users.